Art Clay is Awesome!

I recently bought some art clay, which is a precious metal clay like PMC. For those of you who aren’t familiar with metal clays, they are clays that contain metals and fire into actual metal pieces because the binders burn off during firing. I got some Art Clay Silver Low Fire, which you can fire with a butane torch. It becomes 99.9% pure silver. Above is the first piece I made with it – a leaf pendant!

I’m kind of stupidly proud of my creation, despite it’s flaws. Since this was my first piece, I wasn’t sure how many details would show once it was fired. It turns out that ALL of them show, which means I should have spent more time finishing it, because there are some definite flaws. However, since it’s my first piece and it has some flaws, I decided to keep it for myself.

It was supposed to be part of a pair of earrings, but I discovered that Art Clay is somewhat brittle and easy to break once it’s dry, but before firing. One of the set broke in the middle while I was trying to sand it prior to firing, so I now have a necklace.

Now that I know how pieces look when fired, I can’t wait to start on my next one! I think it’s going to be something for this challenge from the best Etsy team ever, The Promotional Frenzy Team. I’m thinking a geometric design, perhaps Triforce-esque. I really encourage any artists, photographers, or crafters out there to enter! If you’re on Etsy, you should join the team too – it’s awesome!

What do you think of my first piece? Have you discovered any cool new mediums or techniques recently?